Maria on Ovi and the Caps: “I want him and the team to win so much.” She is markedly anti-stop-winnin’-for-McKinnon

Ovi’s advice to Maria: “Just go there and beat them.” Also, optimize scoring lines with offensive-zone deployments and carry the puck less during zone entries. Maybe he didn’t say that last part. You’ll have to read the AP article to find out.

That’s pretty much it. You can read the whole article– from which I’ve already extracted all the stuff you might care about– by following this link right here. Boom!

Thanks to Maria Kirilenko,we have moar child photos of Alex Ovechkin. To the left, Baby Sasha, wearing suspenders, enthusiastically high-fives a person just out of frame, probably Baby Alex Semin. To the right, baby Masha smiles pensively. This is because her pants have been pulled up chest-high and she is having circulatory problems.

Kevin Dineen needed more than a timeout tonight. (GIF by welshhockeyfan)

The Florida Panthers opened tonight’s game against the Washington Capitals with four straight shots on Braden Holtby in the first 1:44 of game action. They looked sharp. They looked ready to get out of the Southeast division cellar. The wheels fell off 24 seconds later.

As John Erskine wound up from the Panthers’ blue line — in what he would later admit was just a dump-and-change — Florida’s starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom mis-judged Erskine’s blast and allowed the puck to squeak through his seven-hole. 1-0 Caps.

2:36 later, the Capitals would score on their very next shot, as Markstrom was caught off guard by Wojtek Wolski‘s strong net crash. Enter Scott Clemmensen.

Clemmensen gave up two more goals — one to John Carlson and another to Mike Ribeiro — in the next six shots. The Capitals received a standing ovation and headed into intermission with a 4-0 lead, their biggest goal explosion this season.

“I don’t know what to say,” Markstrom told reporters after the game. “It was terrible. I feel like I let the team down. I am there to stop pucks, and I didn’t do that tonight.”

While CSN Washington didn’t pan to Kirilenko sitting in the lower bowl, the Devils broadcast on MSG drank from the Ovi-Kirilenko well a lot. They zoomed in on her celebrating with Ovi’s father Mikhail (giving the thumbs up) after Ovechkin’s third goal. MSG’s Deb Placey interviewed Kirilenko during the second period, after Ovi scored his first goal of the night.

Maria Kirilenko reached the fourth round of the Australian Open by beating Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer in straight sets. Speaking with Some Guy after the game, Maria showed off her engagement ring to Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin, by the way, is a name that interviewer seemed unable to say. Maria took it all in stride, turning an awkward interview into a pretty darn charming moment.

Nice catch, Ovi.

One piece of breaking news: Maria says the couple has not set a wedding date yet.

On Wednesday, Alex Ovechkin and the rest of his Dynamo Moscow teammates jumped back on the ice after a two-day break. The Russian machine, who got engaged to Maria Kirilenko on New Year’s Eve, talked about the nerve-racking experience of proposing to Maria and what it was like to spend New Year’s at home with his family.

After Dynamo Moscow’s last game — a 4-2 loss to CSKA, Alex Ovechkin seemed to be really, really looking forward to the New Year’s holiday. “We need to forget this [loss] because New Year’s is round the corner,” Ovechkin told SportBox.ru. “We’ll see relatives, loved ones, friends and we’ll have to forget about this defeat. It’s not the end of the world, is it?”